As a real estate agent, it’s important that you start setting your goals for next year right now so you can start planning them and working on them backward.

We know that a real estate transaction takes 35 to 45 days on average to move forward, and prospecting and getting leads into that conversion funnel extends that process. That will start 90 to 120 days before January 1, so you need to start planning now and not take your foot off the accelerator. Otherwise, you’ll have a really slow first quarter.

You can plan backward by deciding how many transactions you want or what total dollar volume of closed transactions you want. Then break that down into your average price range. Finally, break that down into whatever metric you use to track your business (phone calls, referrals, internet leads, etc.). I have a goal-planning worksheet we use for all the agents in our office, and we have a planning session for our agents as well. We also do off-site visits with my team, and other teams in our office do off-site visits too.

This is a critical time of year, so don’t let it slip by.

This is a critical time of year, so don’t let it slip by. I know you’re thinking about the holiday season, but if you focus now, you can initiate your goals moving forward, enjoy the holidays, and have a wonderful first quarter in 2018.

If you have any questions about planning your goals for next year or would like to know more about the tools we use, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. We’d love to help you.

A successful open house starts with promotion. Promoting your open house will help you get more traffic through the door, and this can be achieved by advertising on Zillow, Realtor.com, or a number of other platforms.

You can also promote your open house on social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat. This is going to generate a lot of interest among millennials.

Also, don’t forget to put up signs. Signs are still the No. 1 way people find open houses, so be sure to make use of them.

In fact, I encourage my agents to put up 20 to 50 signs. This may sound like a lot, but it actually works. The more signs you put up, the more people you’ll be driving to the home.

Another good way to promote your open house is by knocking on the neighbors’ doors. Do this at about 50 properties a couple of days prior to your open house and give the neighbors a personal invite.

A successful open house starts with promotion.

Once you’ve done the promotion, there are still some things left to do. When the day of the open house arrives, make sure you have a table up front with a sign-in sheet available. A good way to get people to sign is by having a pen ready and also by providing an incentive. On my team, we like to offer gift cards to places like Panera or Jamba Juice. Sometimes, you can get a lender to help you co-sponsor these. If you can get your lender to come out to the open house, they can also help people get pre-qualified for your property.

Another strategy to keep in mind is to use a laptop or iPad to feature other properties on the market. This may sound counterintuitive, but it’s important to remember that 92% of buyers who walk through an open house are not going to make an offer on that particular home.

If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Today I want to explain what a CRM is, and also go over how to organize your database.

So, what is a CRM? CRMs are actually systems which allow you to reach out to your database in an organized manner. Some of the best systems out there include Top Producer and Referral Maker. However, you can also use a program as simple as Outlook.

The important thing is to have a system in place and you stick with it. When you put data such as birthdays, addresses, and other important information into your system, it will greatly benefit the flow of your business.

CRMs will help you log calls, give you reminders on when to follow up, and will generally make it easier for you to manage your database.

The important thing is to have a system in place and you stick with it.

My team and I actually have our CRM provided to us by RE/MAX. When you join RE/MAX, this CRM is included.

A common question that arises when discussing CRMs is how to segment your database. Personally, I recommend you divide your database into A’s, B’s, C’s, and D’s. The A segment consists of those who have already referred business to you. B’s are clients who would refer you if they knew how. C’s are new prospects and D’s are those who you should likely delete out of your system.

If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Are Zillow and Realtor.com leads really worth the money? It really depends.

In my experience, I really haven’t found that much success, though it depends on how you go about it and on the strategy of the platform.Zillow has recently changed its strategy in the Colorado Springs marketplace. Instead of giving you a percentage of a zip code, they now sell impressions. This is good for Zillow, because they can sell unlimited impressions and make more money. It’s bad for Realtors though, because it will cost them more per lead.

As they’ve switched over to this, I’ve found that I’ve had less conversion and far fewer leads, and my return on investment has dropped. For that reason, I have limited a very minimal portion of my marketing budget to Zillow.

Zillow has recently changed its strategy in the Colorado Springs marketplace.

Realtor.com is also changing the way they sell their ads. Their conversion rate is similar; it depends on the zip code, the town, and how you work that lead. It's really important you have a follow-up plan for those leads. I like to say, “21 days of pain—in that period you should reach out to the lead at least 15 times between text, emails, and phone calls. You’ve got to be persistent.”

If you call that lead once or twice, that is definitely not worth the money. But if you’re willing to take the time to reach out to them and connect with them—or at least try 15 times over 21 days—I guarantee that you’re gonna convert some of those leads. It’s a balance of how much money you spend in what zip codes and what areas.

I’d love to sit down with you and discuss what strategies I’ve used that have found success on Zillow and Realtor.com, so please give me a call and I’d be happy to share those secrets, tips, and strategies.

Before I answer that, I have an important point for you to consider: As a real estate agent, you are a business owner. The more you learn to treat what you do like a business, the more success you’ll find.

A crucial part of being a business owner is keeping track of numbers. Today, the number we’re most concerned about is the number of leads you have.

Tracking your leads and where they come from as well as your return on investment, or ROI, will be key.

The simplest way to start, especially if you're a new agent, is to create an intake form. Each time you have a lead, find out how they became aware of you. You should always ask: “Where did you hear about me?”

Tracking your leads and where they come from is key.

By putting the responses to this question into a simple spreadsheet, you will eventually start seeing trends. Track on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

The data you find will show you what is and isn’t working in your business, which will help you make smarter investment decisions moving forward. If you find out that sign calls, for example, convert better than your internet leads, you can then further invest in the method you now know works more effectively.

If you have any questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.